By Karu F. Daniels, AOL Black Voices
Tyra Banks may have dressed up like an obese woman --as an experiment for her daily talk show-- but the former 'Sports Illustrated' cover girl has taken umbrage to the notion that she is really "fat."
On the Feb. 1 edition of her eponymous, Emmy Award winning chatfest, Banks will confront the tabloids and gossip websites that ran unflattering photos of her in a bathing suit over the holidays with headlines blaring, "America's Next Top Waddle," "Tyra Porkchops," "Former Model Tyra Banks Reminds the World Why She is Now Retired from the Runway," and "Dude, Did Tyra Gain Like 50 Pounds Below the Neck?"
Always willing to go all out for her television viewers, the fashion icon --admitting to putting on some weight over the holidays -- stands in front of the televised studio audience in the exact same bathing suit next to a life-size cut-out of the tabloid photo to demonstrate how a simple shift in body position or a change in a camera angle can "add weight" in a photo creating the "money shot." She admits that in the photo "... the booty is a little thick," but shares with her audience how the tabloids are ridiculously obsessed with weight.
"Luckily, I'm strong enough and I have a good enough support system. . . My mama has helped me to be a strong woman so I can overcome these kinds of attacks, but if I had a lower self-esteem, I'd probably be starving myself right now. That's exactly what is happening to women all over this country," the former Victoria's Secret spokesperson said.
Banks adds, "I'm happy to be 20 or 30 pounds heavier than the average model and I felt like that was a positive image especially with what's going on now in society with models and women hating themselves and hating their bodies."
"So I have something to say to all of you who have something nasty to say to me or to other women that are built like me, women who sometimes or all the time look like this, women whose names you know, women whose you don't, women who've been picked on, women whose husbands put them down, women at work or girls at school, I have one thing to say to you: KISS MY FAT ASS!"
Alrightee then.
It is quite just that, too.


Comments: (49)
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By: donna on 1/31/2007 3:54PM
Leave her alone she is not modeling anymore and young women need to know you do not have to be a size 0 to be pretty.
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By: jeanine on 2/01/2007 12:11AM
I agree leave her alone. I know plenty of men who would love to be with tyra. I think she looks good. Most important, she has a flt stomach. To me that is one of the many important assets on a woman.
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By: dan on 1/31/2007 8:16PM
Tyra is a dime and all you haters need to leave her alone, nobody wants a thin boney ironing board .
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By: Liquiddiamond on 1/31/2007 10:52PM
Enuff said! Go get em' TYRA!!!! You are still a jewel inside and outside as well.
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By: chas on 1/31/2007 11:51PM
I thought I heard Tyra say kiss her fat ass, where does the begin
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By: chas on 1/31/2007 11:55PM
just goes to show as fine and nice as she is people still be hatin. I'd be the first one in line to kiss her ass though and will try to get cuts
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By: MsJen on 2/01/2007 9:14AM
Tyra is a great role model!!
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By: chas on 2/01/2007 11:21AM
The kiss Trya's fat ass line starts behind me.
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By: NINA on 2/01/2007 3:00PM
I think tyra is a wonderful person and a great role model, I JUST HAD A BABY 8MONTHS AGO AND IM STRUGGLING WITH MY WAIT TO SOMETIMES I JUST DONT WANT TO GET OUT THE HOUSE BECAUSE IM AFRAID I EMBARSS MY HUSBAND. I'D KILL TO BE TYRA SIZE. SHE HELPS ME TO BE STRONG ON DAYS I WANT TO JUST CRAWL UNDER A ROCK. I LUV HER!!
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By: Brooke on 2/02/2007 7:57AM
Tyra my gyrl!
she keep it real
if n thang ppl need to look around cuz like all the guyz say they dont want no boney ironing board1
am i ryt?
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